In which Homeserve and Vaillant redeem themselves

I'm almost scared to write this in case it all goes horribly wrong again, but I have to give credit here it's due. We appear to have heat again. And hot water! Don't think I've forgotten how utterly useless Homeserve and their agents Vaillant (proper spelling this time) were yesterday. I won't, not for a long time. They have, though, redeemed themselves today.

However, I got an e-mail to the blog e-mail address from one of the managers in Vaillant saying that they wanted to restore my faith in the company. I replied with a little more detail than I gave here yesterday and they sent somebody out this evening. The poor man who was sent out was one of their senior technicians who covers all of Scotland but, fortunately, lives a few miles up the road. He could not have been nicer and he left he his mobile number without being asked and without checking whether I was a scary stalker who would ring him in the middle of the night, which, for the avoidance of doubt, I would never do. I'm quite protective of people's work life balance even if I don't tend to practice what I preach myself - which is partly why I'm in the health mess I'm in at the moment.

Thankfully the problem seems to have been easily resolved - although there may be another one which isn't covered by the contract (but may be by another contract I have).

I am wondering, though, how many people put up with terrible service every day. I will be watching out for Homeserve and their agents from now on, given that everyone who replied on various internetty places who had ever had anything to do with them said they were various degrees of bloody awful. Useless was the best assessment of their performance I got.

I said to them in my e-mail to them today that I wanted them to use my feedback to provide a better service for everybody. The two people I've dealt with today were really good and made a big effort, despite the fact that the original problem had nowt to do with them. The guy who came out went out of his way to do and it is very much appreciated.

One amusing legacy from the last few days is that Anna has made it quite clear that she likes the hot water bottle lark and wants one tonight despite the fact that it's warm again.

Hopeless Homeserve Heating Fail

I have just spent the better part of 2 hours on a telephonic merry-go-round with Homeserve and their service company Valent.

We have paid them via Glow-worm, a small fortune over the last decade for a repair plan for our boiler which we had never needed until now.

Yesterday our boiler stopped working so we have neither heating nor hot water. I reported it to the 24 hour claim hotline expecting that they would send someone out today. It seems that every call you make over the weekend gets lumped together as having arrived at 8am on Monday morning and they told me that there are no engineers available until Wednesday.

By that time we'll have been without heating or hot water for 3 days before someone will even have looked at it.

Ok, it's not much fun for us, but I guess we'll have to cope. However, a delay like that could put the lives of someone elderly or chronically sick in jeopardy.

I understand from replies I've had on Twitter that this is outrageously bad service. One friend said that her company had someone out within 2 hours when their boiler failed the day before Hogmanay. Homeserve has been universally trashed. Words like "would never have anything to do with them ever again" and "useless".

It's all a far cry from their literature. I have the policy renewal in front of me which says:

"if you have a central heating breakdown or emergency, simply call the 24 hour emergency hotline number and quote your policy number. Our nearest available Glow-Worm engineer will be directed to you and will aim to be there as soon as possible."

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like it's going to take half a week.

When I complained to Valent, the people who organise the engineers, I was told I needed to take it up with Homeserve. When I spoke to Homeserve, they told me I needed to take it up with Valent. I am sparing you the gory details of being passed from pillar to post by a succession of extremely rude, uncaring people at both companies.

There is a recession on, and I bet you there are any number of out of work heating engineers who would be desperate to be taken on by these people. It's maybe about time they started taking some of them on rather than leave vulnerable people for days with no heating or hot water.

And, finally, this little gem from their policy blurb:

The operator will also tal you through any temporary action you can tae to minimise any damage until they arrive.

Now, I had couple of questions I wanted to ask and the operator said that she wasn't technically trained and I'd need to ring another number. The second she's said 09, I asked how much it was going to cost me. Apparently 60p per minute. Nowhere on any of the policy detail does it mention paying such a sum for emergency advice. I said that there was no way I was paying that and given the wording in their letter I'd like them to arrange for someone to call me.

Now, apparently the staff who answer the phones can't put me through to these people because the number is barred on their phones. However, they've promised to send an e-mail to them to get them to call me back.

I won't be holding my breath.